Art Journaling for Beginners 2

Like waiting for buses art journaling classes came along two at once.  After Sharon's on Friday afternoon, Saturday morning saw me sat waiting at my desk for a class with Tracy Scott (of Paperartsy fame).

Wow o wow was this fun.  I had paint everywhere and in the end had to stop and watch the rest of the class as I had bits of work everywhere and nowhere to actually work.

Again, like Sharon, Tracy is a great demonstrator and teacher and makes you believe in yourself.  Tracy is returning to the Forget me not Kraft Kabin at the end of July and I will be signing up for that class as well.

Art Journaling for Beginners 1

After many years of asking 'Why?' when encouraged to try art journaling I have finally been bitten by the bug and have attended a couple of online classes.  Friday afternoon saw me with the second of these classes live with Sharon Everett from The Forget me not Kraft Kabin https://www.theforgetmenotkraftkabin.co.uk/

Sharon is good at demonstrating and teaching at the same time and makes me feel capable of doing what she is demonstrating - which is no mean feat in itself.

A lovely afternoon using Jofy stamps and lots of ink - perfect!

Zoom Playtime

Friday morning saw my first virtual playtime with my friend, Sandra.  Since lockdown we have only managed a socially distanced coffee face to face, but have had lots of chats on the phone and in our zoom craft group on a Wednesday.  This week we went one further and had a zoom craft session for just the two of us. 

When lockdown started we began working our way through our Clarity Club folders and completing the same month's cards at the same time.  This worked well for a while and then we got bored and tried different things.  So for Friday we decided to return to the Clarity Challenge and agreed which project we were going to do and away we went.

Zoom was very kind to us and didn't end after 40 minutes and we had over two and a half hours before we called it a day.  We both completed the two cards and caught up on all sorts of news whilst we crafted away.  Just what we both needed, and two more cards ready for use.

A prize winning card

Yesterday I entered the Facebook competition at Crafting with John Next Door and won!!

I never win competitions or raffles so am shocked as well as pleased.  I'm also amazed as the card is not one of my neatest by far.  In fact it's a happy accident of lots of paint and a big smile.

The theme for the competition was Red and Pink and you have to use something from the John Next Door range.  I decided to use the large media plate and John's new Calyspo flower stamps and die.  These are lovely as they are overlay stamps so you get a good graduation of colour and like John's other flower stamps and dies they match easily for cutting out.

I used many different pinks and reds on the media plate without much success - I have a lot of backgrounds to work on... I was trying to use the media plate like a gelli plate and it's a very different beast.  In the end I used two reds and a bright pink and stamped onto the media plate and got a good pull which I thought would make a good card base.  A frame, flowers, leaves were added and because I thought it a happy card a big smile sentiment.  The lines on the card base are where I dropped the acrylic block when stamping - a very happy accident!

I have sent this card to a friend who I don't see very often just to say hello, I'm hoping the leaves aren't too bashed when it arrives.

JOFY likes it!

Last week I took possession of one of the latest Jofy stamps, Jofy90.  I had admired other peoples work which showed a very large flower but couldn't find the stamp, and then I realised the stamp was five individual petals as the flower when put together is too large for a single stamp.  Once I realised this my order was in straight away and my fingers itched until I was able to sit and play with it.

I thought I'd just do a simple flower to start with just to get the feel of the stamp.  Wow is it large!  Like all Paperartsy stamps it is real quality to use.  I made a background on 7 inch Clarity stencil card using iced spruce and weathered wood distress inks. 

The background is far more textured than in the photo - I had a choice in the photo between background or foreground and couldn't have them both!  I stamped the flower on watercolour card that had previously had black soot distress ink washed over it.  Because of the texture of the paper I had to colour in the solid black areas and use my white gel pen for highlights.  The circles are Decoarts neon pink that I have had for ages and never used. To pull the background and foreground together I stamped another Jofy stamp in neon on the background.  I matted onto black to frame the work.

I posted this on Facebook and Jo herself said she liked it  - my cup runneth over!

I'm going to give this card to my daughter for her upcoming birthday as she's always had a thing for neon pink.  Fingers crossed that by July 4th I might be able to give it too her in person.

Starting on Christmas in June

Another meeting that needed a displacement activity last night, so I continued with my use of the Crafter's Companion layering stencils and made some Christmas cards.  Again I used the Timeless Lilies stencil but this time turned it into a poinsettia.  I had to move the stencil around to make another leaf for balance, but this was easy to do.  I stencilled straight onto the card blank so very easy for batch making cards, and cheaper to post. 

The sentiment is an old one from a magazine which I stamped in Watering Can Archival as I wanted something softer than black. 

A lovely time getting inky fingers

Yesterday I had a lovely time in an online class run by Maxine Payne at Maximum Crafts.  Maxine runs these by Zoom monthly and sends you the kit needed before each class.

Yesterday we used the Crafter's Companion layering stencils.  I had the Timeless Lilies and the Perfect Peonies stencils.  Both were easy to use but with the Lilies stencil I got a better finish by using the stencils in a different order than suggested.  I used a mixture of Distress Inks, Distress Oxides and Izinks.  My hands looked like I'd had a wonderful time when the class finished.  Happy Days indeed.

After the class in the evening I had a rather boring Zoom meeting to attend, so continued stencilling through it as a displacement activity whilst listening to a lot of boring speakers.  I reached up to the shelf in front of me for my Peeled Paint Distress ink and pulled the whole unit and 64 inks down with an almighty clatter.  I certainly had everyone's attention.  Whoops!

I haven't added sentiments to the Lily cards yet as I'm waiting to see what I use them for.

Catching up with the past!

I couldn't think of what card to do next and after much deliberating involving coffee and cake I decided that I would have a go at working through the pile of crafting magazines that are on the one day pile.  I've started with Creative Stamping Issue 67, so goodness knows how old this is!

In the magazine Tracy Evans is a guest designer and as she is someone whose work I admire I have followed instructions for one of her cards and am very pleased with how it has come out.  I haven't put a sentiment on it as I will be using it as a notelet to an old friend whose husband has just been admitted to a care home from hospital.  In these scary times she is obviously very worried by this. 

Starting Over

When I started this blog I had great hopes and plans for keeping it up to date and posting regularly.  Ha! Life certainly leads in you ways you didn't plan to go and hence I've only played with the blog, but know I feel well enough and have enough time to get going again.  SO.... here I am :)

This card used a PaperArtsy stamp set by JOFY.  (JOFY93) that I bought for an upcoming art journal workshop and I fell in love with it straight away and had to use it.

Very easy background of Tumbled Glass and Broken China distress inks, with main stamp and sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black.  Coloured in with pencils and hilights added with Sakura gel pen.  I then added the background stamps to add depth and texture and sprayed with an old shimmer mist spray that I've decanted into another bottle.  Unfortunately or fortunately the mist blobbed rather than misted but I like the end effect very much.  I know I shall be using this stamp set a lot in the future.

More finishing off

Following on from earlier post two more plays using structure paste.  The first is a book using another Stamperia mould and lots of glue, and the second a good old Ikea mirror and a Clarity stencil.  The mirror was going well until I realised that I hadn't checked which was the right way up.  Cue lots of swearing! Fortunately the paste wasn't dry and I was able to scrape it off and leave an interesting texture behind.  Aaaagh!!!  But all's well that ends well as some clever chap once said. 

Birthday Books

I've been playing around with altering things this last week.  Lots of stencil and structure paste and various paints, glues and waxes to finish.  I'm now at the finishing stage of a few things and am pleased with how the majority are turning out.

I have two birthdays this week for young people and have altered the books below for them instead of sending a card.  Both are Stamperia moulding creme and moulds.  Very easy to use the moulds but an absolute devil to stick to anything.  I eventually found that Mod Podge and being held in place for ages worked.  Even the trusted Cosmic Shimmer didn't hold these babies. It could, of course, be the heat but as everything else was drying super quick I don't think so.  But hey, first world problems...

There's lots I would do differently next time (next time???) but for a first time of using the product I quite like them.

Now to sort some buckets out..

Back in the saddle

I've been out of sorts recently and haven't felt much like crafting or blogging, but after a weekend away at the UKSN craft retreat I feel my mojo has made a comeback.  I haven't started anything new, but have made cards out of toppers that I have started and not done anything with.  Yesterday I had great fun with some Groovi parchment and put together six different cards.  Today was the turn of some stencilling I did back in March.  Lovely Sweet Poppy Stencils, some Imagination Crafts glitter paste, some mirri card and what's not to like?

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I haven't added sentiments yet as that's a project for another day.

FoG is 40

My daughter's partner is 40 next week and as I'm off 'up there' this weekend to see the month old grandson I am ahead of myself ready to take his card with me.

I am referring to the poor man as FoG (Father of Grandson) these days because it makes him laugh, and the poor thing is so sleep deprived he needs all the levity he can get

The card is a simple Creative Expressions papercut die in copper glitter card on a chocolate brown Hunky Dory mirri card.  Nice and easy and celebratory enough for a man.

Craftalong

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I decided to join in Clarity's craftalong on Hochanda with Barbara Gray.  I didn't buy the craftalong kit as I had a suspicion that any of the three way stamps and dies would do.  The craftalong was enjoyable and we had a good laugh as we completed our projects and I came home with a few things to finish off.  It's probably heresy to say that I was slightly disapointed in the actual crafting as the projects, except that of the stencil, were the same techniques used before on Hochanda demonstrations with new releases.  But hey we had fun...

I've had my finishing off head on recently and have completed the cards below from the craftalong. 

On this card I've used perga glitter on the double sided adhesive and chromo pen round the edge to finish off.

This one has gilding flakes on the double sided adhesive.  I've never used gilding flakes like this before and managed to get a lot of my craft room gilded!

This is the negative waste from the top card with perga glitter on the double sided adhesive.  I love this technique and the fact of making a card from what you would normally through away.  There is only one card like this and two of the main die cut as I had a little accident and pinged the cut outs everywhere!

Townhouse stamps using the three way stamps in two ways - outline and inner, and outline and background.  Both work well and mounted on mop up paper using the ink used to make toppers.  No waste crafting.

Thank you Jane

I was thinking about having to make a card for my uncle and like with many male cards was short on inspiration. I had a trawl through a some recent posts of those blogs I follow seeking inspiration and I came across just the inspiration I needed on Jane Willis's blog Onions and Paper. 

Jane had made a card using a faux stained glass window effect which sent me rummaging in my Sue Wilson die folder.  I've had the sail boat die a while now and have used it in many ways - paper piecing, colouring, colouring acetate, and colouring and then covering with microbeads.  All have produced good cards but apart from the colouring, fiddly cards which put me off using the die. 

After seeing Jane's post though a different story.  A quick whizz through the Gemini, with a piece of white card behind the black to pick out the shape of the die.  Some basic colouring and then three layers of Ultra Thick Embossing Powder to get the stained glass effect.  The hardest part was sticking the black card onto the 'stained glass' as Crafter's Companion's Stick and Spray does not do what it says on the tin and ought to be reported to Trading Standards!

I shall put a sentiment on tomorrow morning as the card has to spend the night under some heavy boxes to flatten it out.  I checked the time I commented on Jane's blog to when I finished the card and it was under an hour.  Nice work and thank you Jane. 

The white bits are reflection and not poor colouring.

Whatever happened to...

Whatever happened to these little darlings?  One's now has a baby of her own and the other is still batting his big blue eyes to charm everyone into getting what he wants.  To me both still gorgeous.

Yesterday I attended a Clarity based workshop with my friend 'the masked woman' (see followers).  The list of things we had to take along was so long it was rather like moving house for the day. 
These workshops are always really good and Angela who runs them always gets me out of my comfort zone trying new techniques and products. 

Yesterday we used Leonie's first stencils for Clarity and made backgrounds and a canvas.  I hadn't made a canvas like this since the first craft retreat I went on (Sue Tossell), and had a good time choosing which way to use the stencil, colours etc and generally having a play and getting my fingers nice and inky.   Not sure about the finished product, very not me, but as the main image is of my pride and my boy I shall prop it up somewhere where I can look and remember the lovely times we had when they were young.

Another lovely day today, very unseasonable, but rather nice.  Today I've made a birthday card for my youngest sister.  She is 17 years younger than me and it makes me feel very old when I realise that she is 43 on Friday.  Where do the years go?

Sarah's card is made using Sue Wilson dies.  I'm still working through never before used stash and I rather like the dies used on this card.  The ink, which is a Momento Brilliance was a moment of inspiration.  I suddenly remembered the inks unused up on the shelf, and lo and behold an almost perfect match. 

A few gems and Bob's your uncle, or Sarah's your sister.  If she doesn't like it I shall eat all her cake!

Back in the room

After a really busy month with little time for myself I'm back in the (blogging) room.  I've returned to work part time and because it's only a few days a month I seem to still be doing all the other things I do as well.  And the best present of all, our first grandchild was born on 4th Feb which has meant I have been nipping up and down the M1 for visits and cuddles.

But I have still had time for a little bit of crafting, mainly my first memory album.  For my birthday the lovely Sue Tossell gave me Tonic's memory book 2 and spine dies.  I had never seen them before and wow am I in love with them?  I can't remember the last time I prepared so well for anything.  Making memory books is addictive and I'm already planning my next one.

For this I have used Graphic 45 Vintage Hollywood papers and used a variety of pockets, flaps and bellybands to decorate each page. There is also a pocket between each page with a tag ready to take 4x6 photos.   I also treated myself to the Tonic Legacy Keeper Wallet (swoon) and used this on two pages.  I made this for a friend who is herself celebrating a significant birthday this week and is also a glamorous film buff. 

For a first time I'm quietly pleased with this one.

Happy Birdee

It is a male friends birthday this week and as he is a keen birdwatcher I dug through my unused stamps to find something suitable.  I didn't want to send a realistic looking bird as I knew my knowledge of birds wasn't up to accuracy in colouring so I settled on this Tim Holtz set.  For some reason the stamps were not in a packet so I don't know what they are called.  I heat embossed the background using an unused tub of gunmetal coloured embossing powder (unlabelled) which didn't work at all as I was expecting.  Perhaps it wasn't embossing powder? But it gave quite a nice masculine background to show off a stamped and fussy cut bird and sentiment.  While making this card I remembered another birthday that I had forgotten so quickly made the second card to get delivered today. 

Sticking to my new year resolution I had to make a decision about the stamps and decided that while I liked them, they had limited use and have gone in the swap box, and the embossing powder in the bin!

WOYWW 502

My desk is multi tasking this week as I have gone back to work for a few days a month and needed proper desks space to prepare the necessary for each of my students.  I feel good about going back, I have the best of both worlds in that I will be working for one week a month and the rest of the time for crafting.  Definitely the correct balance I feel.

On my desk are the remnants of yesterday evenings craft session including two cards made for sending today - I live on the edge!  Following my new year's resolution of using unused stamps I made the cards using the same stamps but in different ways.  Now to clear it so I can start today afresh.